Sylvia Pankhurst

‘A wonderful book … Holmes sublimely illuminates Sylvia’s extraordinary life’ The Times‘A masterpiece’ Vanessa Redgrave Born into one of Britain’s most famous activist families, Sylvia Pankhurst was a natural rebel. A free spirit and radical visionary, history placed her in the shadow of her famous mother, Emmeline, and elder sister, Christabel. Yet artist Sylvia Pankhurst was the most revolutionary of them all. Sylvia found her voice fighting for votes for women, imprisoned and tortured in Holloway prison more than any other suffragette. But the vote was just the beginning of her lifelong defence of human rights. She engaged with political giants, warned of fascism in Europe, championed the liberation struggles in Africa and India and became an Ethiopian patriot. Her intimate life was no less controversial. The rupture between Sylvia, Emmeline and Christabel became worldwide news, while her romantic life drew public speculation and condemnation. Rachel Holmes interweaves the personal and political in an extraordinary celebration of a life in resistance, painting a compelling portrait of one of the greatest unsung political figures of the twentieth century. ‘A monument to an astonishing life’ Daily Telegraph, Best Biographies of 2020 ‘A robust and sensitive biography’ Sunday Times, History Books of the Year ‘A moving, powerful biography’ Guardian

[A] superbly sensitive biography … It’s impossible to summarise adequately a book so magnificent … A sophisticated symphony of intriguing and complex analysis, delivered in mellifluous harmony. It’s a feminist book, as is appropriate to the subject, but feminist theory is used as a scalpel, not a sledgehammer … [A] wonderful book … Holmes sublimely illuminates Sylvia’s extraordinary life, Sylvia Pankhurst is finally having her moment … The genius of Holmes’s fascinating and important biography is that it approaches Sylvia’s life as if she were a man … It’s wonderfully refreshing ... It doesn’t matter whether Sylvia was right or wrong in her political enthusiasms; as Holmes rightly insists, what counts is that by acting on them she helped to make history, A vivid, tender and comprehensive biography … Holmes has produced a towering tribute to a truly remarkable figure. Whether or not you sympathise with her political views, it is impossible not to be awestruck by Sylvia Pankhurst’s humanity and relentless, campaigning zeal, A riveting new biography … A big book and an extraordinary life, Natural Born Rebel is an astonishing, comprehensive, personal and political cradle-to-grave biography that surely stands alone as the definitive volume on an extraordinary woman: a suffragette, activist and artist for whom sacrifice and suffering were second nature

Rachel Holmes is the author of Eleanor Marx: A Life, The Secret Life of Dr James Barry and The Hottentot Venus: The Life and Death of Saartjie Baartman. She is co-editor of Fifty Shades of Feminism and I Call Myself A Feminist. She lives in London.